nbc's moderator of "meet the press" david gregory joins me now. as we've said, david, you sat down with president obama this afternoon for an exclusive interview that airs tomorrow morning, but give us a hint. is he optimistic? do you come away with any hope that we're going to have a deal before the deadline? >> i'd say a couple things. i think the president continues to be optimistic, but he, i think, in part is doing the interview on "meet the press" because he wants to keep the pressure on republicans to get something done and made very clear in the course of the interview that there is a political cost to be paid if there is not a deal, a cost that i think he believes will be paid mostly by republicans if they don't get something done. he's gone out of his way to really cast his argument as one of protecting the middle class and that the middle class, 98% of americans don't want to see their taxes go up. if there is a failure to act. that said, the president did not strike me as overly worried about going over the cliff. both confident that t